


There is no Room for Hesitation

by BeachBunny



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: DameRey, Damerey Week, F/M, Jedi Finn (Star Wars), Minor Original Character(s), Original Character Death(s), POV Rey (Star Wars), Rey (Star Wars) is a Mess, Rey is a Stormtrooper, Star Wars: The Force Awakens Spoilers, Stormtrooper Rebellion
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-07
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23522362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeachBunny/pseuds/BeachBunny
Summary: RY-2187 found it easier to comply with what she was told than to rebel, learning to hide her emotions and fear and pain under her white helmet.It was getting harder and harder to do so though. And RY-2187 wondered, not for the first time, how much longer she could do this.So when she sees the pilot prisoner, she takes her chance. There is no room for hesitation.A retelling of Star Wars, with Rey being ex-stormtrooper RY-2187 and Finn being the last jedi in the galaxy.Massive changes to the storyline later to fit my narrative, and also I hated Luke Skywalker’s story in The Last Jedi and I want to remedy that. This will be Damerey endgame.
Relationships: Finn & Han Solo, Finn & Rey (Star Wars), Kylo Ren & Rey, Poe Dameron & Finn, Poe Dameron & Finn & Rey, Poe Dameron & Rey, Poe Dameron/Rey
Comments: 3
Kudos: 24





	1. Jakku Desert

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Death of a minor original character, mentions of blood.

RY-2187 wished she could remember what her family looked like. Her real family. The one she was taken from all those years ago. She imagines a village, full of life and love and laughter. She imagines playing with kids, drawing circles in the sand, dancing in the forest. Maybe no one had much money, but they were happy. She has no idea if these pictures in her head are true, but she likes to pretend they are. 

Now, her family is a band of male and female humans, all dressed in the same sterile suit. Now her family is a sea of white, with a frightening chrome-plated creature at the helm. Now the place she lives in is a stark sterile surrounding of black and white and red. Now there is no playing or dancing or laughter. Now there is running, lots of running, each lap more punishing than before. Now there are targets to shoot, blasters to use, marching to be done, orders to comply. And if they were not fulfilled, they would be sent for reconditioning. RY-2187 found it easier to comply with what she was told, learning to hide her emotions and fear and pain under her white helmet. 

It was getting harder and harder to do so though. And RY-2187 wondered, not for the first time, how much longer she could do this.

Like right now, she was in a hanger with 49 of her family. They sat quietly, waiting for the moment they would land and be given their next order. She nudged her fellow benchmate. “Where are we going?” she whispered. “Jakku,” RY-1898 whispered back. “Apparently Kylo Ren is looking for something there.” 

“The desert?” RY-2187 says a little too loudly, in dismay. Deserts are frightening spaces, dry and dusty and deathly. 

RY-1898 nudged her. “Shh,” she whispers. “We stay together, alright?” 

RY-1898 was someone who took her under her wing when RY-2187 was just learning the ropes, and struggled to follow instructions. She was grateful for this help. RY-1898 was older, more experienced. And she had completed plenty of missions. This would be RY-2187’s first. She inhaled slowly, then let it out. Her breath had nowhere to escape but back to her face thanks to the stifling helmet, the oppressive warmth making her lightheaded. 

All too soon, the hanger jolted as it made its landing. Her family stood up, neat rows of white, all at attention. They formed lines towards the door, as it hissed open. 

And then, to RY-2187, all hell broke loose.

The hanger rocked as it was hit by blasts from the outside. The stormtroopers ran out efficiently, RY-2187 trying to remember her training. It was hard to see through the helmet but she noticed blue bolts whizz by, both from outside and from her family as they fired back. RY-1898 also moved quickly, efficiently.

Until she didn’t.

Neither stormtrooper noticed the blast until it was too late, and it caught RY-1898 right in the neck, the weak point in their armour. RY-1898 spun around, grabbing her neck, her gloved hand coming away with blood. She reached out for RY-2187, perhaps to grab her hand, but it made contact with RY-2187’s helmet instead, leaving blood streaks on the pristine white armour. RY-2187 would have screamed, but it seemed as though her voice was caught in her throat. 

RY-2187 bent down, still stunned. 

“Wait, please…” she begged but it was too late. Her friend was gone. 

“No! No!” she heard someone scream. Dazed, she looked up. It was a woman, begging a stormtrooper not to shoot her child. But her begging fell on deaf ears as a moment later, two bodies lay on the ground, staring unseeingly at the stars. 

Ducking behind a rock, RY-2187 stared around. All around her were her family of stormtroopers opening fire. There seemed to be a band of rebels (scum rebels, her training had taught her) shooting back but the majority were civilians, villagers, men and women and _children_. 

RY-2187 had shot a great many things: dummies, animals, even participated in the execution of a fellow stormtrooper who had been deemed non-essential and a threat (Captain Phasma wouldn’t do the dirty work herself, preferring to show the other stormtroopers first hand the fate that awaited them if they did not comply to orders), but she had never shot children. 

She did not need to, now. Her side was winning. Her family was rounding up the civilians in a circle, just as a ship landed. Kylo Ren emerged, Captain Phasma not far behind, and RY-2187 stood up quickly and joined her fellow stormtroopers. 

An old man was hauled up to Kylo Ren. “Look how old you've become.” Kylo sneered. They exchange more words, then...

“I know where you come from. Before you called yourself Kylo Ren.”

RY-2187 turns her head a little towards the old man, wondering what he meant. She was not the only stormtrooper to do so, she knew. Kylo knew the same thing, and the anger started rolling from him in waves. He snapped at the old man. 

RY-2187 could not follow most of it, but it seemed that Kylo was looking for a map. The old man refused to comply, and a black gloved hand rose up. 

The old man gasped, his own hands flying to his neck. Kylo’s gloved hand did not waver, in fact his hand rose higher, and RY-2187's heart thudded in her chest as the old man’s body was lifted entirely off the ground. Knowing what would happen next, she squeezed her eyes shut as red light emitted and was thrust towards the old man’s chest.

A blue light emitted two seconds later, and RY-2187’s eyes were wide this time as she watched the blue blast hovering in mid-air. Kylo had stopped it, of course. He thrummed with frightening power during the duel sessions, but RY-2187 had no idea that he was this strong. A couple of stormtroopers jogged towards the person who had shot the blast, it seemed that Kylo had stopped this man too, his body thrust at an awkward angle.

He was brought to Kylo, who bent down, and examined his face, and more importantly, the crest on his jacket that bore the symbol of the Resistance. 

“So who talks first? You talk first? I talk first?” 

Clearly, he had a death wish. 

But Kylo did not kill this man. Instead, he seemed to read his mind (RY-2187 hated whenever he tried to read her mind) and barked instructions to haul the man up to their ship.

“Sir, the villagers.” Captain Phasma emerged.

“No survivors.” was Kylo’s reply. A wail went up, and stormtroopers flicked the safety off of their blasters. RY-2187 did the same, trying to seem stoic. RY-1898 had always drilled this mantra into her: _**There is no room for hesitation.**_

“On my command! Fire!” Captain Phasma commands.

Screams erupted, along with blasterfire. RY-2187 also shoots… right at the walls. Strong and steady. She hopes it’s enough to fool Phasma.

It’s not enough to fool Kylo Ren. She knows it the moment she turns around. Kylo’s helmet is focused straight at her, and she goes into a quick jog to check the perimeters, just to avoid that black helmet, heart beating fast.

Not soon enough, it’s over. Everyone piles into the hanger. RY-2187 took in a shuddering breath, her shoulders jostling with the others. Her family. She was with her family. And her family was going home. 

***


	2. The Torture of Commander Dameron

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> RY-2187 mourns her fallen friend, and is forced to participate in the torture of one Commander Poe Dameron.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Mentions of torture through electrocution.

RY-2187 notices her reflection, and pulls off her helmet. She stares at the bloodstain on the front of her helmet, lightly tracing the fingertip marks. She’d forgotten that RY-1898 had reached out for her, after all the tension on Jakku. She closed her eyes for her fallen soldier.

No, her fallen friend.

2 hours later, RY-2187 is just about to finish her food when a fellow stormtrooper approaches her. 

“Captain Phasma wants you to report to Detention Block AA-21.” 

RY-2187 acknowledges him, then goes to change into her armour quietly. What did the Captain want?

The answer emerges when she reports for duty. The prisoner. A stormtrooper is leaving with a metal stick, while another comes in just before her with a wired contraption, and begins to place nodes on the prisoner’s arms and body. The man himself is conscious, his jaw set and his dark eyes glittering.

RY-2187 stands at attention, till she is called upon. She moves to take the wired contraption from the other stormtrooper, who leaves. 

“Commander Poe Dameron, you will give us what we want.” 

“What is it you want again?” Commander Dameron asks, almost offhandedly. 

Phasma nods to RY-2187, who presses the button. Commander Dameron jumps as he’s zapped, but he recovers admirably. 

“You know what we’re looking for. And the Resistance cannot afford to lose another pilot.”

Commander Dameron laughs. “Didn’t think you cared about the Resistance this much.” He grunts as another voltage shocks him. 

He’s bantering, RY-2187 realizes. He’s bantering to frustrate and antagonize Captain Phasma even with his life on the line, just like when he was bantering with Kylo Ren in Jakku. Why? 

"The map, Commander. All you have to do is give us the map."

"Map? I know plenty of maps. Why? Have you lost something?"

The prisoner is made of stronger stuff than it seems. 

“Increase the charges.” 

RY-2187 bumps up the charges, then quietly slides them down again so they’re back to the original level. The prisoner is zapped another time, but he doesn’t jerk as much, perhaps now ready for it. 

“Again!” RY-2187 does the same thing again. _I mean, she’s commanded me to do the same thing as I did before, right?_

“Increase the charges, soldier!”

RY-2187 bumps up the charges again, this time not sliding it down. Too risky. Pilot Commander Dameron’s eyelids flutter, and he grits his teeth so hard, but still doesn’t say a word. She could see the effort he’s making, sweat rolling down his temples and even a couple of tears pooling in his eyes.

_What the force is this guy made of?_

“Sorry,” she whispers. The prisoner doesn’t seem to have heard her. Someone else did though, RY-2187 realizes as her heart sinks. Captain Phasma whirls around to look right at her. 

Thankfully, there’s a distraction.

“Is there any progress?” a man in uniform appears in the holding cell. Phasma is quiet and stiff, a sign of rage boiling under her armour. Phasma never takes failure well. The man takes the silence as a no, and turns to leave. Before he does, he says five words. 

“Kylo Ren will take over.”

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: I don’t know too much about electronic torture (or torture in general), so it might not be accurate. 
> 
> I just wanted to show that RY-2187/Rey was forced to participate in Poe’s torture on the Star Destroyer, and that will affect their relationship in later chapters. Plus, this of course gives her a bigger reason to want to leave Star Destroyer.


	3. You got a name, by the way?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: Mentions of torture, including mention of fingernail pulling.

_She knows_ , is RY-2187’s only thought as she hurries along the sterile corridor back to her dorms. _Captain Phasma knows there’s something wrong with me._

She wants to stop and retch, but she thinks that if she starts, she might not stop. The prisoner… Commander Dameron… she could still smell that slightly burnt smell... and she had willingly participated in his torture. 

But she had hesitated and shown too much empathy to the prisoner… right under Captain Phasma’s nose. They were supposed to be soldiers, trained for this. **There is no room for hesitation.**

Would she be sent for reconditioning? Beaten and tortured, her fingernails pulled out one-by-one as her screams go unheard? Or worse… if Kylo Ren reported that RY-2187 had also hesitated in Jakku… would they deem her unnecessary and a threat to the First Order operations? 

She would be as good as dead. 

Her heart beating wildly, she wished RY-1898 was here to help her. What should she do? How could she get out of this? 

She pulled off her helmet and splashed some water on her face. 

The answer hits her then, and she wonders why she didn’t think of it before. 

The prisoner. 

The prisoner was a pilot. They were on Star Destroyer filled with TIE fighters. And RY-2187 turned around, a plan forming in her mind.

It was not hard to find out who was taking the night shift at hanger base 7. All RY-2187 had to do was mix sleeping pills into the caf machine. Stormtroopers would gather for a night cap, before setting out on patrol. 

She also drugged her bunkmate FN-2199’s caf, and stole his armour when he snored loudly. It was slightly too big and clunky for her, but it would help throw off any spectators, who would think she was FN-2199 before they finally realized who she was. Any second she could buy was precious. 

She waited outside Detention Block AA-21, just until the changing of shifts. Then, she boldly marched in. 

“Kylo Ren wishes to interrogate the prisoner.” she addressed the guarding stormtrooper. She didn’t recognize him. He must be a new transfer. 

He looks back at RY-2187. “What? I was not informed of that.” He taps his communication while she glances at Commander Dameron, whose eyes were shut when she came in but was now blinking them open. “Kylo Ren requested for the prisoner to be brought to his room for further interrogation.” 

“I did not receive any communications.” The stormtrooper is confused. “If that is so, then I will bring the prisoner to Kylo Ren.” 

“No,” RY-2187 bit back, but it was too late. The stormtrooper was regarding her with his full attention now.

“Kylo Ren requested for me to bring the prisoner to him. He requested for me to be present during the interrogation.”

She gazes at the other stormtrooper. “Unless you wish to take it up with Kylo Ren yourself?”

The stormtrooper seems to realize the same thing, as he now moves towards the pilot.

Click! 

The pilot rubbed his wrists as they came free from the metal contraption. The stormtrooper wasted no time in securing them with wrist manacles and pushed him towards RY-2187. Not stopping, RY-2187 quickly put her blaster on the pilot’s back and urged him forward. No one spoke till they left the room.

RY-2187 waited till they reached an alcove, then pulled the pilot in after her. 

“Commander Dameron,” she says, taking off the helmet. “I need your help.”

“Huh?”

“This is a rescue mission. I’m rescuing you!”

Rather than look happy, the pilot is looking at her with a level of distrust. 

“Are you a spy?”

“No! No?” Rey realized she should have just said yes and explained later, but it’s too late. Distrust is all over on the man’s face again. **It’s a trap** , she can practically see hovering all over the man’s face.

“Look, I need to get out of here, and you want to get out of here. Why don’t we do it together?” She breathes in deep. Cards on the table. “I don’t want to be part of the First Order anymore, but they’ll kill me if I stay here. I need to get as far away from this ship as possible.” 

“So you’re running away?” 

“Yes!” 

“And you can help me get away?” 

“Well can you fly a TIE fighter?”

Commander Dameron puffs up his chest. “I can fly anything.” 

Okay, cocky flyboy, RY-2187 thinks, but doesn’t say out loud. 

“How do I know I can trust you?”

“Look, you need to get out of here, don’t you?”

“Yes.” 

“Got any other plans?”

The pilot huffed. Then she remembered. The stormtroopers likely didn’t feed him. She holds up a flask of water, sipping from it as a gesture to show the pilot that it wasn’t poisoned. He takes it from her and takes a swig. 

She then offers him a ration bar and the pilot all but snatches it from her and tears into it.

“Thanks,” he mumbles. “You got a name, by the way?”

“It’s RY-2187.” she says. The pilot stops chewing, incredulity on his face. “What kind of a name is that?” he says in disbelief. 

“It’s the only name they gave me,” she shrugs it off.

“Sounds like a soldier. Or more like a prisoner.” 

_Aren’t I both?_ RY-2187 thinks, but doesn’t say out loud.

“Well, I don’t want to call you that,” the pilot regards the wall behind her for a moment. “...Rey. Can I call you Rey?”

“Rey…” RY-2187 tests it on her tongue. “... yeah, I like it.” she grins and holds out her hand. “You can call me Rey.”

The pilot clasps her hand with his own. “'And you can call me Poe.”

“I’ve never had a name before,” Rey says offhandedly, and Poe stops chewing. His hand is still grasped to hers as he stares into her eyes. 

“You do now.”


	4. Why does everyone want to go back to Jakku?

“Watch out!” Rey screams.

“Don’t worry, I got it!” Poe maneuvers so they duck into a dive, just as a laser bolt misses their TIE fighter by inches. 

Getting out was both easier and harder than Rey expected. They had managed to take out several stormtroopers guarding hanger base 7, and were escaping on a TIE fighter. 

It was hard because this meant Rey had to take out some of the stormtroopers she knew.

She knew that right now she could be that cold-blooded killer, because between her survival and theirs, she would pick her own survival. But she also knew that once the adrenaline faded, she would be left with survivor’s guilt to haunt her dreams. And probably a whole lot of blood-filled nightmares.

Anyway. That was for later. After all, for now, she still had to dodge goddamn laser bolts. 

“We got more visitors!” Poe yells as he swerves, a few TIE fighters trailing behind them. 

RY-2187 (No wait, it’s Rey now! Even if she dies in this kriffing cockpit, she’s died with something of her very own!) aims for another TIE fighter, and whoops as it explodes on impact. 

Then she notices where the pilot has set the coordinates to.

“Jakku?!” she yelled. “Don’t go to Jakku! There’s nothing there that can protect us!”

“I need to get back to Jakku!” 

“What?!” Rey stuttered. “WHY? They’ll find us there in 12 parsecs!”

“I got to get to my droid before the First Order does!” 

“Look Poe, we just came from there. That’s the first place they’ll search!”

Poe shook his head. “No, this is urgent. I need my droid. He’s a BB-unit, orange and white.”

Rey is impatient now, aiming for another TIE fighter as Poe avoids the laser bolts. “What could be so important? We should hide on a nearby planet for a day, then we can look for your droid.” 

“My droid’s got a map to Luke Skywalker.”

Luke Skywalker. Rey is stunned. Everybody who knew about the Force knew about Luke Skywalker. He was a legendary Force user, who had apparently disappeared many years ago. Kylo Ren was always mad whenever the name was mentioned, which led her to believe that perhaps Kylo Ren was afraid of Luke. 

In her astonishment, she had stopped firing on the TIE fighters. But they had not stopped firing on her. 

BAM! 

Poe curses, trying to right the TIE fighter, but he’s desperately losing control. The last thing Rey sees is the sky.

***

Suddenly, she came to, gasping for breath. Where am I? She thought. What happened? 

Rey clutched at her chest, as she sat up. Sand. The ground feels gritty with sand. Her head is throbbing like a bantha had sat on her, and her mouth is dry. She looks around.

All she can see is sand dunes and the sky. A swirl of black smoke rises behind her, and she scrambles over. 

The TIE fighter they escaped on is completely on fire, but that doesn’t deter her. “Poe!” she screams, black acrid smoke filling her mouth and tongue. She grabs at something…

A brown jacket comes into view, but no pilot. She stumbles, as the world suddenly seems to tilt on itself.

It’s not her headache, she realizes, almost too late. The TIE fighter is suddenly sinking into the sand, and Rey scrambles away. She has to practically leap away, her chest making contact with the gritty ground. 

And just like that, the entire TIE fighter is gone from view, and the sand rights itself as though the TIE fighter had never existed. 

Another friend gone. Two for two. She’s really set a record today.

***

Force, it feels like she’s been walking for days. 

Rey has been walking and walking, but she’s seen no one else for hours. She’s sweating buckets, even though she’s using The Pilot’s jacket to cover her head. The sun beats down on the sand relentlessly, the rays bouncing off the sand, making it extra difficult to see. 

But she’s a soldier. She’s built for this, to withstand suffering. Rey keeps her mind focused on the plan. Get water. Get a ship. Get off this planet. 

Finally, thankfully, she sees what looks like a makeshift market come into view. She could see dingy wares, some traders, a couple of humans. No stormtroopers. NIIMA OUTPOST, an arched sign screamed. 

_Water!_ her mind screamed, as she spotted a small fountain in the middle of the ramshackle bazaar. Her feet carried her there, and the water looked a little disgusting, but it was still water. She dove in.

The water was as warm as everything else in this godforsaken place, but Rey couldn’t afford to be choosy. She drank enough, still slightly lightheaded, but much better. She splashed the water on the back of her neck, then climbed out. 

A couple of traders laughed at her antics, but she didn’t care as she shook the water off, walking toward the back of the makeshift stalls. 

Get water. Get a ship. Get off this planet.

“You new here?” a voice on her left suddenly asks. Rey whirls around. 

It’s a dark-skinned man, his face betraying no emotion. At his knees, a spherical orange and white droid whirled around, beeping. Rey doesn’t understand binary, but the droid seems agitated. The man silences the droid before looking back at Rey.

“Nice jacket,” he gestures to the oversized pilot’s jacket Rey still wore. “Is that your boyfriend’s jacket?”

Rey’s throat closed at the thought of Poe. “None of your business!” she manages to say indignantly. 

“Well, it is my business.” the man says evenly. “Since this droid here says that this jacket belongs to his master.” 

At that, the droid extends a mechanical arm and zaps Rey’s leg. “Ow!” she yells. 

“So,” the man continues as though nothing had happened, “Either you’re a thief, or you’re a thief. Which is it?”

Rey feels the electricity zap through her leg again and she yelps, glaring at the droid. “Cut it out!” the droid beeps angrily in reply. “Your master?” it dawns on her that this must be the droid that Poe was talking about, the droid that he was trying to retrieve from Jakku. 

“Orange and white BB-unit,” she mutters. “Your master… is Poe Dameron, right?” the droid seems to beep an affirmation, and whirls one round around her leg once. 

“Yes, this was his jacket. He was captured by the First Order, and we escaped on a ship together, but then we crashed. He…. Poe didn’t make it.” 

Rey didn’t understand binary, but the droid sure seemed to understand basic, from the way it emitted sad beeps. She looked down at it. “I’m sorry.”

She looks back up to meet the dark-skinned man’s eyes. “You were helping him?” he asks. 

“Yes.” 

“Were you also captured by the First Order?” 

_Oh. Uh..._ She settles on a half-truth. “Yeah.”

“How do I know you didn’t just kill him?” At the man’s words, the droid emits a few high-pitched beeps.

Rey’s stomach turns as she flares up. . “Because I didn’t! When I met Poe, we felt we could help each other to get as far away from the First Order as we could. But Poe said he needed to get back to Jakku to get his droid first.”

“Why?”

“Because...” Rey looks down at the droid, “That’s classified.” 

The BB-unit emits a few beeps, and Rey wishes she could understand binary. The man seems to understand it though, as he surveys Rey, distrust still evident on his face. 

Rey realizes that perhaps they could be her ticket out of Jakku.

“The droid has… something special.” she says hesitatingly. “A map.” 

“Uh huh…” the man probes, his face falling. They’re both dancing around each other, trying to figure out if they can trust each other. 

“A map to Luke Skywalker.” 

The distrust on his face goes away slowly. The droid beeps in affirmation at Rey’s words, clearly ready to trust her now. 

“We need to get out of here.” Rey says commandingly now. “The First Order saw Poe and I crash on this planet. They’re probably already looking for us. We need to find a ship and get off this planet.” 

“I can help you get a ship,” the man says pondering, turning and walking away, “but I’m not leaving here.” 

“Why not?” Rey and the droid set off next to him. He doesn’t answer. 

“I’m Finn,” he says instead, and they shake hands. The droid beeps. “And this is BB-8.” 

***


End file.
